Most companies conduct some kind of financial planning or budgeting exercises to forecast the performance of their business and products. Financial modeling is a crucial part of this process, as it guides strategic and future planning, enabling informed decision-making.
With rapid technological advancements and the sheer volume of available data, the need for data-driven and insightful decision-making has only increased. Financial planning and modeling help CFOs and businesses navigate the uncertainties in the current market and drive sustainable growth.
Financial modeling usually involves creating a spreadsheet (typically MS Excel) of a company's costs and income to use in calculating the impact of a future event or decision. Most SaaS financial models are spreadsheets that outline the company’s financial performance and help with projections for its leaders and investors.
In this guide, we have detailed six of the best SaaS financial modeling software platforms on the market in 2024. For each platform, there is a summary of key features related to SaaS financial modeling with a few pros and cons highlighted, which might be helpful as you evaluate your options.
The best financial modeling software compared
We have reviewed a range of second and third generation, cloud-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) solutions to help you find the best fit for your unique business and requirements for financial modeling software, whether you’re a small startup or mid-market player.
Here’s a look at a side-by-side comparison of the key features businesses typically consider in any financial modeling software platform. We have also provided a detailed analysis of the different platforms mentioned here later in the article.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $$ | $-$$ | $$ | $$-$$$ | $$ | $$-$$$ |
| Best for | SMB to Mid-Market | SMB to Mid-Market | SMB to Mid-Market | Mid-Market | SMB to Mid-Market | Mid-Market |
| Scalability | High | Moderate; Same limitations as MS Excel | Moderate; Same limitations as Google Sheets | High but requires extensive planning | Moderate | Scalable but requires continual adjustments |
| Type of FP&A solution | 3rd Generation | 3rd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation | 2nd Generation |
| Native Integration | 200+ OOTB integrations | 70+ OOTB integrations | 22 OOTB integrations | Few native integrations | 29 OOTB integrations | 7 OOTB integrations |
| Predictive Forecasting | ||||||
| Multidimensional modeling | ||||||
| Multiple scenarios and What-if analysis | ||||||
| Real-time automated multidimensional reporting | ||||||
| Collaboration with fine-grained access controls | ||||||
| Customizable modeling and reporting templates | unknown | |||||
| Dynamic Dashboards |
Drivetrain
Drivetrain is a third-generation FP&A software solution purpose-built for B2B and SaaS businesses. With Drivetrain, CFOs and finance teams are able to easily create more scalable and reliable financial models by building integrated plans, providing budgets and forecasts, tracking progress in real-time, and resolving bottlenecks that hinder growth.
Drivetrain offers a powerful calculation engine capable of handling highly complex multi-dimensional models.
$$
Small and Mid-sized companies
Customizable forecasting tool
Best-in-class calculation engine
Marries data from multiple source systems natively
Provides detailed variance reports in real-time
Self-serve reporting and dashboards
Automated 3-statement model and reports
Ensures multi-currency & entity support
Heavily focused on B2B businesses
Multi-dimensional modeling capabilities
Real-time budget and Rolling budgets and forecasts vs. actuals
Data visualization and management
Custom metric builder
Scenario planning and What-If analysis
While not purpose-built for B2B or SaaS businesses, Datarails is an Excel-based FP&A tool that automates financial planning, reporting, analysis, and data gathering. While it enables users to continue using their existing financial models in Excel, the platform has challenges regarding complex Excel calculations (sometimes, teams revert to Excel defaults).
$-$$
Small and Mid-market
Budgeting, consolidation and variance analysis
Integration with user-friendly interface
Multi-currency support via FX translation tables
Different reporting formats (e.g., dashboards, storyboards, report builder)
No native integrations with Google Sheets
Data refresh is slow
Requires custom formulas and syntax for many routine operations
Lacks functionality needed for advanced multidimensional modeling
Technical glitches due to back-end updates
Limited role based access controls
Financial reporting
Budgeting and forecasting
Analysis and scenario modeling
Data visualization
Similar to Datarails but not limited to MS Excel, Cube is a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that helps businesses and finance teams streamline financial forecasting, workflow management and budgeting operations.
$$
Small and mid-sized companies
Familiar UI which makes it easy to learn
Native Google Sheets integrations
No custom formulas needed
Lack of flexibility in Excel reporting
Reports require heavy formatting to be presentable
Multidimensional analysis capabilities are limited to 8 top-line dimensions
Drill-down capabilities are limited to the summary-level
Not intuitive for non-finance users
Customizable dashboards
Automated workflows
Source systems integrations
Scenario modeling
Vena was developed mainly for Microsoft 365 and comes with Power BI embedded to enhance its functionality with native Excel. It is meant to be an off-the-shelf solution for users who prefer to use spreadsheets—Excel is at the core of Vena—but whose FP&A needs are more complex than what can be managed with spreadsheets alone.
$$
Mid-market
Contains a centralized database and metrics
Offers editing control on spreadsheets and templates
Workforce planning features
Data sharing via ad-hoc report builder
Compatible Excel interface
Reported glitches during set-up and installation
Relatively high learning curve
Not self-service oriented—users have reported needing external system integrator or IT help with integrations, reporting and template setup
Long implementation times (in excess of 2 months and often beyond 4 months)
Cash flow modeling capabilities limited
Forecasting - forecast types and rolling forecasts
What-if modeling and statistical analysis
Capital asset planning and cash management
Version control
Similar to other types of financial modeling software, Mosaic automates different financial operations to streamline workflows. Its main strength lies in consolidating and transforming insights into accessible visuals often required by the management and other stakeholders. It can be regarded as more of a financial-BI tool than a comprehensive FP&A solution.
$$
SMB to Mid-market
Workflows and collaboration
Analytical capabilities
Easy-to-navigate UI
Model creation is rigid (highly inflexible) and highly templated
Graphs and charts cannot be customized
Doesn’t handle rollups well
Doesn’t support weekly reporting
Many users complain of limited and difficult to setup access controls
Financial analysis and modeling
Collaborative budgeting
Data visualization
Custom metrics
Cross-functional insights
Workday Adaptive Planning is an FP&A tool targeted at finance teams and users who wish to move away from spreadsheets to an enterprise planning solution. While it is not purpose-built for SaaS, it does include modeling features suitable for SaaS businesses.
$$-$$$
Mid-market
Good financial close and consolidation capabilities
Access real-time analytics and insights
Powerful business modeling
Easy-to-use reporting
Unclear pricing plan with limited options (final costs unknown)
Limited number of native integrations
Difficult to run reporting on one entity (only runs in consolidation)
Reports cannot be modified without creating a new report
Enterprise focus adds many features that are not required by SMBs
Annual planning and budget planning
Financial analytics
Rolling financial forecasts
Financial modeling
Drivetrain vs. the field: Why Drivetrain is the best financial modeling software for your SaaS business
In the earlier sections, we detailed the features along with the pros and cons of the 6 best financial modeling software tools on the market today. While this is intended to help you choose the one that fits your business requirements, at a high level, there are a couple of additional features that are critical to ensure a successful modeling effort in your business.
Amy financial modeling software you choose should:
- Provide real-time visibility into current business performance by centralizing financial/business data and plans to manage and analyze the information more efficiently.
- Enable stakeholders (both internal and external) to collaborate on plans and data, analyze and identify bottlenecks, and make amendments as needed to achieve their business goals.
Given these filters, Drivetrain stands out as a simple and intuitive platform for first-time users and finance teams, which can be used for building simple to highly complex financial models easily, modeling different scenarios and conducting what-if analysis, and creating flexible rolling budgets.
Drivetrain can be considered as the go-to financial modeling software as it not only provides a highly sophisticated and powerful calculation engine, but also offers the familiarity and ease of Excel spreadsheets through its user-friendly interface. Powerful, yet simple. That’s Drivetrain.
See how Drivetrain can accelerate your financial modeling process
How to choose the right financial modeling software for your business
The software you choose should provide robust forecasting capabilities, allowing you to model different scenarios and assess the potential impact of various decisions on your financial performance.
What is financial modeling and why is it needed?
Financial modeling is the creation of models to represent the potential performance of a company. The most basic type is the three-statement model, which links the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.
The top 6 key benefits of a financial modeling software
Choosing the right financial modeling software for your company is a big decision. The ability to create accurate, reliable models that explore multiple scenarios is critical because some pretty big decisions are dependent on your results.
SaaS businesses have their own unique challenges and nuances, making it all the more important for entrepreneurs and CFOs to choose and work with the right financial modeling software. In this regard, a third generation FP&A platform—a strategic finance platform purpose-built for SaaS businesses—will provide powerful, value-added benefits.
1. Automated data consolidation
Most modern FP&A platforms can streamline the consolidation of your financial and business data (without IT support) and help you track all key metrics in one place. This saves you the trouble of manually pulling and reconciling from different sources. Further, the ability to integrate with source systems eliminates the need for manual entry of data (and the resulting errors)—making it more time and effort friendly.
2. Real-time visibility
You should be able to review your business performance with streamlined real-time/on-demand reporting—via multi-source data consolidation—for the entire organization. The tool should allow you to easily view and update your models with a click of a button and allow you to share the results with those that need to see them.
3. More accurate forecasts
FP&A tools help in accurately forecasting future revenues—by shortening budgeting/planning cycles, improving cost control, aligning your teams, and boosting productivity. Overall, this feature enables better resource allocation and strategic planning.
4. Model maintainability
This feature helps replace multiple spreadsheets. Therefore, it becomes easier to scale and keep track of business models without worrying about its maintenance. Issues occur when unwieldy spreadsheets cause version control issues, copy-paste errors, formula syntax errors, wrong cell references, access control issues, and collaboration difficulties (among others).
5. Better, more informed decision-making
By providing insights into key financial metrics and performance indicators, financial modeling software provides SaaS companies with data-driven insights, leading to more informed and effective decision-making. These include decisions related to pricing strategies, customer acquisition, expansion plans, and resource allocation.
6. Scalability
As SaaS companies grow and evolve, their financial modeling needs become more complex. Financial modeling software offers scalability that spreadsheets simply cannot match, allowing SaaS companies to adapt their models to changing business dynamics, market conditions, and growth trajectories without significant manual effort or disruption.
What are the different types of financial modeling tools and software in SaaS?
While most CFOs and finance teams continue to rely on the familiarity of spreadsheets to create the models they need to inform their planning, the limitations inherent in spreadsheets for FP&A can significantly impact the reliability of model results.
Everything, all the data and formulas, have to be entered into a spreadsheet manually, which makes them highly prone to error. Model inputs can change, too, which requires the finance team to verify the data often, which is always a manual, time-consuming task when using spreadsheets.
In addition, different departments tend to use their own models and spreadsheets to develop their budgets. Reconciling these department-level budgets to create an overall budget that everyone can agree on can take a long time. By the time you’re done, there is also no easy way to be certain that none of those numbers have changed in the meantime.
Looking for solutions to these fundamental issues resulted in creating what is known as modern FP&A software (i.e., strategic finance software) and continues to drive its evolution.
Our feature comparisons here indicate the maturity of each of these tools in terms of the degree to which each solution relies on spreadsheets:
Source: Adapted from FP&A software classifications developed by Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy).
| As compared to spreadsheets | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web application that replaces spreadsheets | ||||||
| Web application that integrates with spreadsheets | ||||||
| Application uses a spreadsheet for calculations | ||||||
| Add-in for spreadsheet applications |
The accuracy and speed of our workflows are significantly higher with Drivetrain. We don't have to wait for a quarter or month-end to capture performance.— Rahul Kumar, VP of Finance and Business Strategy, FarEye
Real-world use cases for a financial modeling software like Drivetrain
FarEye, established in 2013, is an intelligent delivery management platform that simplifies complex last-mile logistics. The business finance team at FarEye was tasked with measuring company performance and providing stakeholders insights into growth.
To accomplish this, every month, the team had to export data from different systems and sources, such as NetSuite, Salesforce, and multiple spreadsheets. Then the team had to manually stitch together the data from each source to create the reports and generate the required insights. The entire process was time-intensive, heavily manual, and prone to errors—even after double- and triple-checking the numbers. Further, they could not input complex assumptions in a spreadsheet. As a result, the workflow was becoming extremely arduous and inflexible.
Due to these manual processes and inflexible workflows, the team could only share reports with the stakeholders at defined intervals, which did not always align with organizational objectives.
This is where Drivetrain stepped in. With Drivetrain, FarEye was able to centralize MIS data, ensure faster workflows and maintain higher projection accuracy
Drivetrain's first task was integrating FarEye's disparate data sources onto a single platform. By centralizing FarEye's MIS data, the business finance team could rely on a stream of real-time insights into company performance. Drivetrain's ability to automate large portions of FarEye's business finance workflows also increased projection accuracy.
Given Drivetrain’s deep expertise in B2B business models, together with SaaS, Drivetrain’s customer success team was able to meet all of FarEye’s financial modeling requirements, share best practices, and guide FarEye teams on how to model their different use cases to gain the actionable insights and reports they needed.
As a result, with Drivetrain, FarEye's Business Finance team can now deliver insightful reports to stakeholders using real-time data with the granularity necessary to facilitate agile, data-driven decision-making. Instead of worrying about incorrect formulas or typing errors, team members can easily drill down into the data, roll-up projections, and change assumptions as needed.
See how Drivetrain can accelerate your financial modeling process
Features
1. Native Integrations
At the top of our list of core features for any financial modeling software is fast and seamless integrations with all the systems containing source data for your modeling process.
Integration with source systems eliminates the need for manual entry of data (and the resulting errors), thereby making more time and effort friendly.
For example, the 200+ native data connectors that Drivetrain offers pull in financial and business data from various business systems with ETL processes that make the data useful and accessible in real time. An important part of the ETL is mapping and classification. Drivetrain helps with automatic data mapping across ERP, CRM, HRIS, and billing systems, including custom fields.
This creates a single source of truth with reliable, business-ready data that users can sync on demand (e.g., every hour or once a day) to directly manipulate, analyze, and derive timely insights. It also ensures your model is always based on the most current financial information.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native integrations with top 6 ERPs | ||||||
| Native integrations with top CRM, HRIS, Billing & BI tools | ||||||
| Integration with Excel and Google Sheets | ||||||
| Excel/CSV upload download |
2. Real-time, automated multi-dimensional reporting
Dimensions are attributes of metrics by which you can view, break down and compare to better understand your business. This involves grouping/filtering different dimensions (e.g., expansion revenue by region, market segment, product, channel, etc.). You can also compare time dimensions (e.g., past period vs. present period) or different scenarios (e.g., best case vs. base case).
This process of comparing different dimensions in your business is known as multi-dimensional analysis or modeling – a very powerful capability you’ll want to look for in a financial modeling software.
Multi-dimensional analysis and reporting enable informed and decisive leadership, with full visibility and actionable insights into business financial and operations activity. Multi-dimensional analysis is key to uncovering problem areas, risks, and opportunities. It adds clarity and broad context, so leaders can intelligently navigate the business towards the future.
A financial modeling software supporting multi-dimensional reporting essentially means getting access to real-time deeper data to answer second-/ third-order questions and also derive “hard-to-get” insights.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Down to Transaction-Level | ||||||
| Drill Down by Any Dimension | ||||||
| Global- and Report-Level Filters | ||||||
| Automated 3-Way Financial Statements | ||||||
| Text Callouts/Notes in Dashboards | ||||||
| Reporting templates | unknown |
3. Predictive forecasting
Predictive forecasting is one of the most important features a business needs in financial modeling software.
Cash flow forecasting capabilities are especially important for SaaS companies to ensure liquidity and sufficient funds to pay for its day-to-day operations and support growth initiatives. Cash flow forecasting enables proactive management of cash resources, anticipating funding needs, and avoiding a cash flow crisis.
The functionality to forecast cash flows accurately by considering both revenue and expense projections, timing of cash inflows and outflows, capital expenditures, debt repayments, and other financial activities is critical.
A key part of predictive forecasting is being able to access historical data in real-time, use various types of forecasting methods (preferably already built-in in the tool) and quickly change assumptions for creating these forecasts without having to alt-tab on multiple different pages or spreadsheets
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rolling forecast | ||||||
| Driver based forecasting | ||||||
| Pre-configured forecast methods | unknown |
4. Scenario analysis
Uncertainty is a fact of life for any business. The ability to conduct scenario planning and what-if analysis in real time is critical for SaaS CFOs to evaluate the impact of different scenarios on their budgets and enables more informed and proactive decision-making.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensitivity Analysis | unknown | unknown | unknown | |||
| What-if Analysis | ||||||
| Unlimited Scenarios | ||||||
| Multiple Scenario Planning |
5. Customizable templates
Of course, any financial modeling tool should allow businesses to create models from scratch. However, the best options will be those that also offer templates to speed up the process.
Modeling templates are very helpful in modeling because they can significantly accelerate the time-to-value and ultimately the ROI of whatever financial modeling software you choose. However, all templates are not created equal.
SaaS businesses often have unique business models, pricing strategies, and growth trajectories, which makes one-size-fits all templates marginally useful at best. When evaluating financial modeling software it’s a good idea to take a close look at the templates provided to determine if they will suit your needs and if not, how easy it will be to customize them.
The best templates, such as those Drivetrain provides, incorporate modeling best practices and are flexible enough to accommodate all the unique characteristics of your business model. With Drivetrain templates, you can customize assumptions, inputs, and formulas according to your specific requirements, industry-specific nuances, and changing market conditions.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Templates by business maturity | ||||||
Templates by business maturity | unknown | unknown |
6. Dynamic Dashboards
Visualizing key financial metrics and performance indicators helps in monitoring progress, identifying trends, and communicating the business's financial health effectively.
When on the lookout for SaaS financial modeling software to measure your business performance, consider software platforms that offer interactive dashboards with enriched reporting features for presenting financial data, including budgets, variances, scenarios, etc. for faster, more informed decision-making.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Down to Transaction-Level | ||||||
| Drill Down by Any Dimension | ||||||
| Global- and Chart-Level Filters | ||||||
| Automated 3-Way Financial Statements | ||||||
| Text Callouts/Notes in Dashboards | ||||||
| Reporting templates |
7. Multidimensional Modeling
Financial planning involves many moving parts and several variables (beyond financial figures). This is why selecting software that allows you to create multi-dimensional financial models, reports, and dashboards that meet your specific needs is vital.
You should be able to tailor inputs, calculations, and outputs as per your organization's unique requirements. Most importantly, you should be able to model at the speed and dimensionality of your business operations.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-Memory Multidimensional Calculation Engine | ||||||
| Rolling Budget | ||||||
| Real-time view of Forecast and Budget vs. Actuals | ||||||
| Unlimited Planning Window (long range planning) | ||||||
| Multi Subsidiary Consolidation | ||||||
| Natural Language Formulas | ||||||
| Driver Based Budgeting and Forecasting | ||||||
| Multiple Scenario Planning | ||||||
| Model Templates |
8. Onboarding, Training and Customer Success
There’s always a learning curve with any new tool. However, a great onboarding experience can help your teams adopt the product quickly and leverage it to its full potential. An in-house implementation team, interactive walkthroughs, self-service support, and quick customer service will ensure your questions are resolved in a timely manner that will reduce your time to value.
| Software/ Platform | Drivetrain | Datarails | Cube | Vena | Mosaic | Workday Adaptive Planning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation time | 4-6 weeks | unknown | > 2 months | >2 months | >2 months | > 4 months |
| In-house implementation | Yes | unknown | unknown | No | unknown | No |
| White-glove onboarding | ||||||
| Self-service management (admin) | ||||||
| Dedicated customer support/success |
FAQ
1. Is there a difference between business financial modeling and SaaS financial modeling?
Financial modeling is a process of creating a mathematical representation of a company's financial situation. This process involves using various financial data, including financial statements, balance sheets, and cash flows along with other relevant information to create a model that finance teams and businesses make better financial decisions. Financial models are often built using spreadsheets.
SaaS financial modeling is a specific type of financial modeling. It is the process of charting a summary of the expenses and revenues of your SaaS business. It typically includes present and future revenue forecasts and important KPIs that your company's finance leader should consider and track on a routine basis.
At times, traditional financial models may also include these elements for a single product revenue projection. In SaaS businesses, however, the financial model must factor in the complexities of recurring revenue that comes in with subscriptions, customer churn, and its impact on predicting future revenue.
2. What is the importance of a SaaS financial model?
A robust SaaS financial model can enable finance leaders to leverage data-driven insights to shape business strategy and chart the growth path for their company.
SaaS financial models are important for both startups and established businesses as it helps in determining its financial health, through:
- Financial planning: SaaS financial models are effective tools for financial planning as they give you a better understanding of your company’s financial stability and hindrances in your financial plan.
- Resource allocation: Financial modeling helps SaaS businesses allocate resources more efficiently, which can help reduce your costs and increase profitability.
- Service pricing: Financial models provide a better understanding of the costs incurred to acquire and provide services to customers. They also provide insights about the lifetime value of a customer. This, in turn, enables you to estimate and adjust the pricing and subscription cost of your services.
- Business planning: SaaS financial modeling can uncover inefficiencies in your business plan, giving you the opportunity to improve operational efficiency and profitability.
3. What is the difference between financial model spreadsheets and financial modeling software?
Financial model spreadsheets: Typically, these are Excel spreadsheets created by an FP&A professional. FP&A teams have to manually consolidate, input, and analyze the data to create financial modeling spreadsheets. This is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Financial modeling software: Financial modeling software (also known as financial model builders) are tools/platforms that make financial modeling more efficient and less resource-consuming.
This software is typically a software or platform that helps analyze a company’s business performance against the projected targets, evaluate the implications, and arrive at insights and solutions to get it back on track.
Since the processes are mostly automated, these tools significantly reduce the risk of human error and save a lot of time in model development and maintenance. Further, the use of good-looking visuals (graphs and charts) on patterns and trends helps facilitate decision-making.
